Build a 7mm Weatherby mag

[Kingofthemountain83]

I have a Weatherby Mark V 7mm mag 26" barrel, that is in need of a new barrel and stock... Got to where the tightest groups I can get are about 2" at 100 yards with the occasional flier that may miss the target... 2 years ago I had the gun checked out by a smith, bore scoped the barrel and through it all... He said it was shot out and the stock developed some water issues over time... Not surprised by either of these things... He showed me on the screen, a lot of the rifling missing and the internal stock issues... I'm happy with the trigger and he said that was in good working order... Nice clean break at 3#... I haven't looked into anything yet and was just looking for ideas, recommendations, people, places, things you'd do to build off this action? It's the trap door model from 1986, made in Japan... Can it be converted to a detachable mag?

[b23]

Don't feel bad about your poorly shooting 7 Wby mag because you aren't alone.  Back in 1987 I was at a gun shop and came across a MkV in 7 Weatherby mag that seemed like way to good of a deal to pass up so I bought it.  It too was a Japanese made MkV and it was used but looked nearly new.  I was barely 18 at the time and still had a love affair with Weatherby's.  That rifle turned out to be hands down the worst shooting POS I have ever owned.  On it's best day it maybe shot two inch groups and it didn't really matter what bullet or ammo I put through it.  Ironically I shot a lot of game with it but back then most of my shots were usually well under 200yds.  Hunted with it for a number of years until Weatherby came out with the Accumark and I sold it and bought one of those in 300 Wby which turned out to be one of the very best shooting factory rifles I ever owned.

When rebarreling it the easy part is selecting a barrel because any of your top tier barrel manufactures Krieger, Bartlein, Brux, Hart, Lilja, Benchmark just to name a few will be good to go. 

As for what 7mm to have it chambered in I'd skip past another 7 Wby mag and instead look heavily at the 7 PRC.

I haven't paid much attention to Weatherby's for some time so I'm not sure who if any make a detachable mag conversion kit for MkV's so I can't help there.

[10mmg]

Food for thought. Many of the older 7mm WM had a slow 12 twist barrels making them tough to find a good load with the new better bc bullets. If I was going to re-barrel and keep the cartridge I would look for a faster twist that can handle the new heavy for caliber bullets. It has the ability to speed along like a 28 nosler wit heavy bullets if you can get the twist rate right.